How do I undo display rotation on external monitor hooked to a Powerbook G4?

[shakespearemara]

Hi, can anyone help me with this please? I read the thread about how to pivot your screen over in another section but it didn't address what to do when it goes wrong. And it did...very wrong. I'm running a Powerbook G4 Titanium 15" laptop with Tiger OsX 10.4.11 and I hooked an external monitor to it. I was playing around with the settings and saw the rotation feature, which wasn't available until I attached the external monitor. As soon as I clicked on 90 degrees, both the main screen and the external fritzed out. I could vaguely see things through the haze on the main screen but the whole thing had stopped responding to all mouse and keypad commands. Eventually the only thing I could do to regain control was a hard shut off with the power button and unplug the external. After that the main screen booted up just fine but the moment I hook up the external again they go blue screen of death on me and I can't see what I'm doing to undo what I did!! I tried hitting the manual reset on the screen itself, which I didn't really think would work but hey, desperate times...

After some research on the internet I found out that, contrary to what the other thread says, not all Tiger enabled computers can run the rotation function, apparently because the scan rate, or something like that is too low. Which is why the option was disabled when only the main screen was running. Nice to know and would have been good to know sooner but what I need help with now is HOW DO I FIX THIS MESS?!!!! Some sites mentioned archiving (I'm moderately computer savvy but I'm not totally sure I know how to do that) and some have mentioned the boot disk, which I have but I want to make sure I know what will happen if I do that. I've backed up my files just in case. Will it erase the programs I've installed or just my settings? Or is it much simpler and is there something in the utilities I can mess with that will reset stuff? Anyway, sorry for the long post but if anyone knows how to get me out of this, help please?!

PS. I something suggested on the Apple website, called a PRAM reset (Command+Alt+P+R) but either I did it wrong or it didn't do any good.

 

[techound1]

Do you have a buddy with a different external monitor?

Have you looked at the displays options now, when the additional monitor is NOT hooked up?

Try setting the display resolution on your computer at really, really low and then hooking up the monitor. That may send a low enough refresh rate to keep your video chip from having a freak out and let you manipulate the settings.

 

[shakespearemara]

Do you have a buddy with a different external monitor?

Good thought. I did that just now, and it just got weirder. I hooked up a different monitor, an older flat screen, and it popped right up and I was amazed. But in the preferences it didn't have all the same options like the rotate display menu as the other external screen (see below). So just on a wild idea I unplugged external #2 (borrowed) and plugged in external #1 (having issues) and it came up and I was ready to jump for joy for a moment but the moment I hit "Detect Displays" (so they would work together properly) it automatically reverted back to the rotated 90 degrees deal. So I'm trying to see if I can find a newer screen that will bring up the Rotate menu, but the problem seems to be partially display specific cause while it did work for a minute, the moment it realized the fritzed up one was plugged in, it went back to the specific settings for that monitor, the problem being that I can't seem to access the specific settings to undo what I did to that monitor. I tried changing things around while the monitor was playing nice, but it doesn't seem to affect it. And I can't not hit Detect Displays cause even if I didn't, once I rebooted the computer would detect the screen and I'd have to have the other screen handy to do it all over again.

Have you looked at the displays options now, when the additional monitor is NOT hooked up?

This is a screen shot of what it looks like without, no Rotate Display menu, and when I searched for it in Help it said, This has been disabled because your screen does not support it (thank you so much apple...). The only time that showed up was with the first external screen.
http://www.megchandlerdesign.com/DisplaySettings.jpg

And this is a screen shot of the borrowed monitor, the second external monitor I tried. The only difference is that the borrowed monitor doesn't have the Rotate Display drop down menu under Gather Windows.
http://www.megchandlerdesign.com/DisplaySettings-Monitor3.jpg

Try setting the display resolution on your computer at really, really low and then hooking up the monitor. That may send a low enough refresh rate to keep your video chip from having a freak out and let you manipulate the settings.

I did try that cause it seemed worth a go, but what I'm being told on other sites by people who have spoken to Apple is that the problem is that my refresh rate is already too low. I even found a program that had a keyboard sequence to rotate the computer screen, but it didn't work cause once it freaks, the keyboard stops responding.

I hope all that made sense. Thanks.